I love the twist of Kate reading Me Too Iguana (one of my sister’s childhood faves) to everyone. Of course, some of my fondest childhood memories include listening to that beautiful gray-haired woman read me bedtime stories – specifically from a big book of Uncle Wiggily’s Tales. I still get teary-eyed when my kiddos ask to pull down that special book off the shelf to read another adventure of the long-eared gentleman.

Just wanted to share a little moment of our life with you all today, and encourage you to go read one of your favorite books with your little ones.

“In the light of the moon, a little egg lay on a leaf…”

For Mother’s Day we have a tradition of planting in our garden in the back yard. The kids help pick out what we want to plant while we’re at the nursery, then enjoy digging holes in the garden to plant their favorites.

Since Kate and I are studying butterflies for her lapbook (and since we both like butterflies a lot), we decided to plant some milkweed to attract Monarchs. Monarch butterflies like to not only sip the nectar from the flowers of these plants, but they also like to lay their eggs on the leaves. The baby caterpillars then eat the leaves as they grow, turn into chrysalises, and then eventually finish the life cycle to become an adult Monarch butterfly.

Within only an hour of planting our milkweed in the back yard, we spotted a Monarch butterfly flitting around the plants over and over for a good 10-15 minutes. Little did we know that it was a she and she was actually laying her eggs! Just a few days after planting is when we noticed the eggs on the undersides of the leaves and then a couple of days later we were already noticing TINY green caterpillars starting to gnaw holes in the leaves.

Today, only one week after planting, we saw a much larger yellow/white striped caterpillar on the underside of one of the leaves.

Needless to say, we are all very excited to get the opportunity to watch the life cycle of a butterfly in our own backyard!! And I just had to share it with you all! I’ll keep you posted as our caterpillars grow larger and turn into chrysalises. We can hardly wait!

• Where did you come from?  Texas <THAT’S my girl!!>
• Where are you going?  (giggle) To my house
• What is dancing?  Fun
• What’s the best place in the whole world?  Home   Why?  Because my Mommy and my Daddy are here.
• What do you wish for?
• What is a giggle?  It’s a laugh.  Like what I’m doing.  (giggle)
• What do you dream about?  Mommy and Daddy
• What did you dream about last night?  Mommy hugging me.  <aw.  So sweet.>
• Do you want to be beautiful or smart?  Both.
• What is the sky made of?  Blue and white.
• What did you do today?  School.
• How fast can you run?  Very fast.
• What’s the meaning of life?  I don’t know.  <join the club, sister!>

My husband just bought a DSLR camera.

My husband just bought a Nikon D80.

And I was afraid of it.

Seriously, I’m used to the cute little Nikon CoolPix point-and-shoot that we’ve had forever where you quite literally “point” it at your subject and then “shoot” the pic.  I learned much about photography on that little camera.  Things like “make sure that the heads of all the people in the picture aren’t cut off” and “the flash only lights up a few feet in front of you, not the entire concert stadium”.  And once I mastered those incredibly difficult photographic techniques, I started working on framing my photos using 3rds, and not always using the flash, and looking to see what’s in the background of what I’m shooting (ie. is that pile of dirty dishes the back drop of the otherwise incredibly cute pic of the kiddos?).

I just got to a point where I felt comfortable.  Like I kinda knew what I was doing.  Like I could take a half-way decent picture of my own children.

And then he bought the monster camera.

And everything I was proud of myself for learning was now child’s play.

I was suddenly immersed in a world of F-stops and aperture priority and focal length and ISO.  It was to be expected that I was scared.  Intimidated.  Overwhelmed.  Sad that I wouldn’t be able to take pictures anymore because there was no way I would ever learn how to use this thing.

Somehow (I blame it on almost 14 years of marriage), my dear husband picked up on my hesitancy to even try using the camera.  So, he sat down with me, showed me how to put it on “auto” everything and then MADE me shoot with it until I was more comfortable with it.

Now, I’m learning how to change the focal point.  And use the “aperture priority” setting.   I’m still fuzzy on F-stops and ISO and the difference between lenses, but at least it doesn’t scare me to pick up the camera anymore.  So, when our friend handed me his D3, the much bigger brother to our D80 (see above picture), I actually kinda knew what I was doing.  In fact, he may have created a monster by teaching me so much.  Now, my friends know that if I’m showing up at an event, I’ll probably be the one toting around the camera bag and shouting at the kids to “say cheese” for the umpteenth time.

And I’m actually okay with that.

We finally got finished, packed it all up and drove down the street to Northwest Assistance Ministries. When we got to there, we took a few minutes to look around their resale shop so Kate would have a better understanding of where her beloved things were going. When wemade it around to the back, the volunteer who helped us unload the car was very sweet to Kate and assured her that all her toys would be put to good use.

As soon as we got back into the car, Kate burst into tears. She just knew she was really going to miss all of her things. (Mind you, most of them had been put away in a closet for months with no mention from her.  But, you know how kiddos can be.) So, we talked about how awesome it was going to be for all the boys and girls that didn’t have many toys to get to play with hers because she was so generous to share.  We talked about how maybe the little girl we saw in the resale shop would get some of Kate’s old dress up clothes to wear for Halloween.  We talked about ‘give and you shall receive’.  We talked about the sun behind every cloud as she peered out the car window at the overcast sky was and pointed out the patches of sunshine peeking through.

Then, we decided that the two of us needed a date.

at McDonald’s.

with an ice cream cone.

And then, everything was alright with the world again.

“But I’ll still miss those toys, Mommy.”

1. I love the way your eyes twinkle when you are thinking of something mischevious.
2. I love the way you play with the kids on the floor, tickling and laughing and affectionate.
3. I love that you are a dedicated, self-motivated, go-getter of a man.
4. I love that you make me do silly things just so I won’t take life so seriously.
5. I love that you support me in everything I set my mind to and push me towards the things that I should do.
6. I love that you are my best friend and that we can have conversations about ANYTHING.
7. I love that you are a passionate person and care deeply.
8. I love that you don’t care how well I cook; you’re just grateful that I cook at all.
9. I love that you let me slide my popsicle toes up under your legs so I can warm them up.
10. I love it when you walk up behind me when I doing dishes or cooking dinner, put your arms around my waist and kiss me on the neck.  It makes me wanna cook and clean more. 
11. I love the way that you take care of the people you love most and keep their needs ahead of your own.
12. I love that you understand my weird idiosyncrasies and even find most of them endearing.
13. I love that you allow for my love of Shipley’s donuts, even though you know Krispie Kremes are better.
14. I love the way that you encourage each of our children in their own individual strengths and personalities.
15. I love the deep, spiritual conversations that drive you.
16. I love that when it comes right down to it, you really do enjoy spending time at home with me and the kids.
17. I love that you push me to try new things even when I don’t want to.
18. I love that most of the ‘vices’ I’ve picked up over the years were intentionally started by you – this is where I raise my glass of wine to you and say, “Cheers!” (or “clink!” as our kids would say)
19. I love that you are returning to the man you were created to be and you allow others to do the same.
20. I love that we can watch geeky, scientific, educational shows on TV together and we both like them.
21. I love that you take care of me and treat me like a queen, even when I acting more like the chamber maid.
22. I love the way you dance with our girls and show them what true love should look like.
23. I love the way you encourage our boy to become a “Hesketh man”.
24. I love the smell of your pipe in the evening; it reminds me to slow down and enjoy our life.
25. I love that you’ll watch romantic chic flicks with me, even when you don’t feel like it.
26. I love the way you love inclement weather and turn into a little boy again during storms.
27. I love the way you love my sister and parents as if they were your own.
28. I love that you understand the plight of this stay-at-home mom; you encourage me to get out of the house and you don’t complain when its not at its cleanest.
29. I love that you are ‘interruptable’ even when you’re hard at work.
30. I love that you built me 2 websites to fill with words and you didn’t even charge me.
31. I love that you encourage me in my strengths and help me discover ways to manage my weaknesses.
32. I love the way you let music move you.
33. I love the home we’ve built together; it’s a home filled with peace and love and grace and warmth.
34. I love the way you love to laugh.
35. I love the way your eyes soften a little around the edges when you look at me in a loving glance.
36. I love melting into you at the end of a long day.
37. I love the way you love me.
38. Shawn, I love you for who you are.

A few weeks ago I went to pick up Ethan from Mother’s Day Out.  One of his teachers was sharing with me that he enjoyed the story of Peter Pan that day and was one of the few children in the class that recognized Tinker Bell.  I laughed as I told her that didn’t surprise me since his older sister is a ‘princess’, so at our house we know all about princesses and fairies and such.

His other teacher overheard our conversation and started to laugh with us.  She knew Kate from school last year and she added her take to the story.  She said,

 

Oh, yes.  Kate is most definitely a princess.  She’s always wearing her tiara.  You may not always see it, but it’s always there.

After laughing hysterically, I came home and told Shawn this story.  He also laughed his butt off.  We decided then and there that this was most definitely the best description of our daughter, ever.  She is always carrying herself like royalty, constantly reminding her siblings of how things ought to be done (she told Ethan that he wouldn’t be invited to her tea parties again because he was not using his manners), but also constantly generous to those around her.

So now, whenever Kate does something particularly ‘princess-y’, Shawn and I just look at eachother, laugh, and say, “You may not see the tiara, but it’s always there!”

One of the traditions I like for my kids’ birthdays is to make a cake or cupcakes or cookies for them for their big day.  (Not because I’m good at it – I did NOT get the baking genes passed down from my grandma and mom – but just because it’s something special that I don’t normally do throughout the year.) With the entire city out of dairy products, though, that was going to be impossible.  Every cake mix requires eggs or milk or both.  Since I was already having a little bit of a difficult time accepting my baby becoming a toddler (I wouldn’t allow Shawn to even use the word toddler around me during that last week.), this just added to the emotion for me.

Somehow, my sweet mother-in-law found about my little breakdown and went to a store 20 minutes away that had dairy.  She bought me a cake mix, eggs, milk, and even the icing for on top.  That has to be one of the most thought-full things someone has done for me in a long time.  I made the cake with great thankfulness and didn’t even get upset when it broke a little coming out of the pan.  I iced it and then decorated it with mini-marshmallows from my pantry that I then colored with food coloring.

It was not the most beautiful cake I’ve ever made.  But, it was definitely filled with the most love.  Karis will probably not even remember anything about this birthday, but I will remember that someone special paid attention to the smallest of details to make it memorable for me.

Thank you, Brenda.  :)